Dr. Reddy’s shares hit record high! Pharma stock up 5% in 3 sessions

Shares of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories gained nearly 2% to touch a fresh all-time high on Wednesday, aided by sustained rally for three sessions. The pharma heavyweight has risen nearly 5% so far this week.

Early today, Dr. Reddy's shares opened higher at ₹7,000 against the previous closing price of ₹6,964.85 on the BSE. Extending opening gains, the pharma stock surged as much as 1.95% to hit a new record high of ₹7,101, while the market capitalisation climbed to ₹1.17 lakh crore.

The counter has risen 36% against its 52-week low of ₹5,212.10 touched on October 30, 2023. In the last one year, Dr. Reddy's shares have gained over 19%, while it added 11% in six months and 21% in the calendar year 2024. In the past one month, the stock has surged over 4%.

The share price of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories got a boost today after it announced a potential partnership with the U.S.-based Kainomyx for the joint development of an affordable anti-malarial drug.

The Hyderabad-based company and its contract research and drug manufacturing organisation (CRDMO) arm Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Kainomyx, Inc. for development and commercialisation of anti-malarial drugs in the U.S., Europe, and in low and middle-income countries.  

"Public health and access is a strategic area for us and malaria continues to be a very important disease that needs innovative as well as affordable medicines. The MoU with Kainomyx is a promising step in that direction and towards improving global health outcomes and delivering on Dr. Reddy’s vision to reach 1.5 billion patients by 2030,” says Deepak Sapra, CEO – API and Services, Dr. Reddy’s Lab.

As per the deal, Kainomyx will focus on the technical strategy for drug discovery and clinical development, while Aurigene will create cost-effective and scalable drug chemistry, and Dr Reddy’s will contribute its regulatory and market access expertise. 

In recent years, Dr. Reddy’s has acquired multiple brands in the over-the-counter (OTC)  portfolio in the U.S. markets, such as NRT brand Habitrol, pain-relief brand Doan’s, women’s health products such as Premama for fertility and parenthood, and the MenoLabs portfolio for menopause. In June, Dr. Reddy’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories SA, Switzerland, agreed with Haleon Group to acquire its nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) business, outside of the U.S., for 500 million British pounds. The portfolio consists of brands including Nicotinell, Nicabate, Habitrol and Thrive available in gum, lozenge and patch forms across over 30 markets in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Last month, Dr. Reddy’s received a positive committee for medicinal products for human use (CHMP) opinion from European Medicines Agency for the launch of its proposed biosimilar Rituximab in European markets.  The company is developing DRL_RI (ITUXREDI) as a biosimilar of MabThera (Rituximab), a cluster of differentiation 20 (CD20) directed cytolytic antibody.

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